


Tell Yourself This Is How It’s Going To Be

by Kalcifer



Category: Dangan Ronpa 3: The End of 希望ヶ峰学園 | The End of Kibougamine Gakuen | End of Hope's Peak High School
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene, POV First Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-20
Updated: 2020-06-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:22:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24818323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kalcifer/pseuds/Kalcifer
Summary: Hajime and Natsumi talk about the titles they’d have, if they were really Ultimates.
Relationships: Hinata Hajime & Kuzuryu Natsumi
Comments: 2
Kudos: 26





	Tell Yourself This Is How It’s Going To Be

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally written for the Path to Our Future: Hajime Hinata zine! I had a lot of fun working with everyone on this, especially since it was my first time writing for a zine. You should definitely go check out all the other amazing art and fic that was done for it, too.

I had a weird conversation with Kuzuryuu today. She came up to me during lunch and, out of nowhere, announced that she was bored of talking about herself. “What about you, nerd? If there are more important things than talent, what are you even doing here?”

I really didn’t know how to respond to that. Sure, I’m trying to believe what Nanami told me, but that doesn’t mean I don’t still have the same impossible dream as everyone else here. I still want to have a talent, to join the Main Course and prove that I matter. It would have been kind of pathetic to say that out loud, though. “It’s the most famous high school in Japan,” I said instead. “It seemed like the best decision for the future.”

“Yeah right,” Kuzuryuu said. “Everyone here is a Main Course wannabe, even if most of them are too weak to go after it. So what’s your talent?”

What was that supposed to mean? She has to know that we’re not all as self-centered and deluded as her, right? We don’t all go around making up talents to give ourselves.

I wasn’t going to say that to her face, though. I’m not suicidal. I think I stammered out something about never having thought about it before. It wasn’t a total lie, at least. I’ve never even gotten as far as choosing a single talent to pin my hopes on. It’d only make it hurt more when I failed.

Kuzuryuu wasn’t listening, though. She waved her hand at me dismissively. “Please. You should know by now that I don’t waste my time on people who are completely worthless. Maybe the idiots in charge won’t recognize it, but there has to be something you’re good at.” As if it were my fault she latched onto me to spill her entire life story.

Looking back, I guess that was her idea of being nice? It was more faith in me than anyone but Nanami has shown, at least.

I wasn’t thinking like that at the time, though. Obviously. That’s not how any normal person would try to make friends. She’d probably take offense at me calling her normal, though, so maybe it works out.

The point is, I didn’t answer fast enough for her. I was too busy trying to work through her convoluted logic.

She scowled at me. “Fine. If you’re not going to say anything, I’ll just have to figure it out myself.” She considered me really dramatically, tilting her head and tapping her chin like she was a cartoon character or something. “I think you could be the Ultimate Doormat,” she declared at last. “Conflict avoidant, always staring at the main building… you just have to flatten your hair and you’d make a perfect welcome mat.”

“Hey!” Seriously, who just says that?

Kuzuryuu Natsumi does, I guess. She just smirked like she’d solved a riddle. “If you don’t like it, come up with something better.”

I’d like to say I had a witty comeback ready for her. In reality, I muttered something like, “Maybe I will,” and then trailed off. I’m not so stupid as to keep my letter from the Steering Committee with me at school, but I couldn’t help looking at my bag as if it would spill out at any moment. Would my choice of a talent even matter? It wouldn’t to me. I’d take anything they could give me.

“Maybe I’ll be the Ultimate Everything,” I said, once the silence had gotten uncomfortable. I meant it as a safe answer, something too childish to reveal anything real. I realized after I said it that it was embarrassingly close to the truth. If talent is impossible for me anyway, why not dream big? I’m no less likely to be the Ultimate Everything than the Ultimate Doormat.

Kuzuryuu laughed. It was such a harsh sound, it took me a second to realize she wasn’t making fun of me. “Damn, maybe you’ve got balls after all,” she said. Which, okay, does kind of sound like she’s making fun of me when I write it down, but her tone was approving at the time. “I have no idea how you’d prove you had a talent like that, but now I really want to see you try.”

“I could just sit down and do all of the practical exams the last class did,” I said. I had to admit, it was a great mental image. I’d sew a dress in front of the judges while stirring a pot of candy and delivering a soliloquy.

“Not just the last class,” Kuzuryuu said. “If you’re going to be the Ultimate Everything, you have to commit. Do every practical exam in the history of Hope’s Peak.”

I leaned in as if I was confessing something. “I hate to admit it, but I don’t think I’m going to be the Ultimate Princess anytime soon.”

That one got her to cackle, so loudly that several of our classmates turned to look at her. “Hey! Mind your own business!” She glared at them until they looked away, then turned back to me, grinning again like nothing had happened. “I can’t see you as the Ultimate Little Sister, either. I guess you’ll just have to settle for the Ultimate Almost Everything.”

“You’re crushing my dreams,” I said, deadpan. “How could you do this to me.”

“I’m sorry, I thought you knew who I was? Crushing dreams is what I do.” She shook her head. “You see, Hinata? You’re not half bad when you stop getting all emo about the Main Course. Even if you didn’t really answer my question.”

Then she started talking about some sort of drama going on in the Kuzuryuu clan without giving me a chance to respond. I’m not going to write that part down, because I don’t want to leave any evidence linking me to hypothetical yakuza crimes.

It’s weird, though. This may be the first time I’ve stopped wishing for talent long enough to joke about it. It’s more of a relief than I’d expected. I think I understand Nanami a little better now.

I’m still not going to give up on my dream. Just because there may be things more important than talent doesn’t mean that talent is meaningless. Hope’s Peak doesn’t have to be the end of it, though. I’ll be fine even if I don’t make it into the Main Course.

Weird that I’d learn that from Kuzuryuu, of all people. She’s even more obsessed with Ultimate titles than I was. I guess I just won’t mention this to her. She’ll probably figure it out on her own, and then she won’t feel obliged to murder me for suggesting it. Maybe someday we can look back together and laugh at how stupid we used to be.

It’s only high school. We’ve got time.


End file.
